jsloan

Nope, no changes at all, except to make sure that you bring both your passport and green card. UA may ask to see your green card at Richmond, and you'll definitely need it for your return flight. None of you will interact with US immigration on the way out of the country.

As for your son -- dual nationality can be a tricky subject and off-topic for the Houston connection thread. The US requires that he use his US passport to enter and leave the United States. (Source: US State Department). Japanese law appears to be the same (Article 60 & 61 here ; lawyer's explanation here). So, in theory, that would mean you'd want to use his US passport when on US soil and his Japanese passport when on Japanese soil. However, dual nationality is tricky, especially because it's not really recognized by Japan (all Japanese dual nationals are required to select a nationality by age 22), and I don't want to give you bad advice. If you have friends or family members in the same situation, you might want to ask them what they've done, or you might want to do some further investigation on your own, perhaps by contacting the Japanese embassy or a qualified immigration attorney in Japan.

None of this affects the procedure inside the Houston airport, though, just what documents you need to show when.

Enjoy your trip.

PS: Sorry, I just realized that my original message might have been a little confusing. I said "I'm assuming that you're traveling on a non-US passport" not because it changes the transfer procedure -- it doesn't -- but because most Americans wouldn't think to ask this question. There used to be a form stapled inside non-US passports on certain visa types upon arrival into the US; the airline check-in agent removed those. However, I don't believe those have been used in years, and I don't think you would have gotten one anyway, because whether you entered on an immigration visa or as a green-card holder you didn't need one. Leaving the US is really pretty straightforward.

yassy

Thank you. I have been to Japan to go see my family many times in the past so what document to use is fine for me. I get out from USA with green card and Japanese passport and enter with Japanese passport.Son gets out USA with his USA passport and enter with Japanese passport, get out with Japanese passport and enter into USA with his USA passport. He has been to Japan once so, I am good for that.

We used to take a trip from IAD (Washington Dulles Airport) -Tokyo (direct flight) and when we go to terminal after check in, right before the security checkpoint, there was always the officer at desk and check our passport. I did not check my passport but I assumed that it was when the departure stamp was stamped onto our passport.

The route with indirect flight is not new to us;used IAD-detroit-nagoya Japan before but,it was so long time ago and I was not remembering how we did connection for passport's departure stamp stuff.

This recent flight route via houston is very new and was not sure...

So, if we do not interact with immigration officer at any point from terminal B to terminal D, then, my passport would not have departure stamp at all? That would not create entering issue for missing stamp of departure when returned to USA?

HkCaGu

Please carefully re-read the various replies above. You may have been mistaken for a long time! The United States had never had exit control checkpoint as long as we have lived. Nobody ever (normally) received an "exit stamp"! The security checkpoint is just that, a security checkpoint. The TSA inspects you regardless of whether you are flying domestic or international. It's the same procedure and many international flights depart from the same area as (not separated from) domestic flights. The TSA accepts the same list of IDs regardless of your destination. While the airline makes sure you have a passport (at check-in and at gate boarding) to fly international, you could've used a state ID to pass TSA, and nothing at all for kids 17 and under!

jsloan

Great -- I just wanted to make sure. ^

As HkCaGu says, there are no departure stamps for the US -- if you look at your passport, you won't see any. It won't cause any problems, because the airlines report to the immigration officials when you leave. Even then, the only restrictions that you have as a green card holder are that you can't be out of the country for longer than one year without applying for a reentry permit or returning resident visa in advance. As long as you're not staying for a year -- and your green card won't expire between now and the time you get back -- you'll be fine.

yassy

Thank you. I guess i was thinking all wrong for many years thinking whoever sit at the desk right in front of TSA checkpoint who asks for passport and tickets and write/type something was giving us stamps,lol.

I checked passport and realized we got no exit stamp from USA and just we had departure/entry stamp at Japan.

So, I guess Airport staff at Houston who said to me I need to get departure stamp at their Airport was wrong then.

Since I have heard that Houston Airport got long line of custom etc.., I worried if we had to mingle with those passengers coming into USA just to get a departure stamp.I am glad to know we do not have to be in the line for anything after getting off from the plane:-)Just go from one terminal to the other via skyway.

travelfam7700

Is this realistic at all, or high chance of missing connection? PDX to GCM

We would be checking bags.

Thanks!

Legend717

Wait, you're going FROM PDX to IAH, and from IAH to GCM?
Outbound?
You'd have zero problems.

Inbound, that's another story.
But outbound, it's not any different than any other flight connection, with the exception of having to show your passport to the gate agent for GCM.

EmailKid

Is this a daily or weekly flight?

Schedules are padded to reflect on time arrival, but I would check recent flights to see how the PDX flights are.

I had a tighter connection to SIN at LAX with 67% of flights arriving late, some of them after SIN departure, so called UA. They offered me a flight a day later

SIN is daily, so decided that if I misconnect, they would have to make it right.

We arrived late, but SiN departure was even later, but I lost my chance to stop at United Club as a result. Had this been a weekly flight, I would have tried harder to get on an earlier flight @:-)

UAL250

If it's PDX-IAH-GCM, you'll be fine. Worst case is you have to go from C6 or so to E18 or so, but that's doable in even 50 minutes if you hustle. I'm going to assume your PDX-IAH flight is the 5am flight, is that correct? If so, I see no reason you'll be anything other than early or on-time unless there's a serious mechanical issue.

travelfam7700

Thanks for both replies. It is the 5 am flight PDX-IAH-GCM. On the way back to Portland, the layover at IAH is 2 hours, leaving GCM around 5 pm. I assumed 2 hours coming back would be fine so I didn't ask about that one.

EmailKid

Especially with an overnight stay for your plane in PDX you are probably fine. I'd be more concerned with coming back.

While 2 hours is usually enough to clear Immigration, Customs and domestic security, I'd say it's cutting it a little close, especially if you have to also pick up and after customs drop off your bag as well.

VERY doable, but I would not linger.

travelfam7700

Thank you very much for that information even though it wasn't part of my original questions. Super helpful.

wpcoe

Looking at schedules from MID (Mérida, MX) to NRT, I see flights that should be a legal connection via IAH, but they don't show up in searches on Google Flights, Matrix/ITA or united.com:

On ExpertFlyer it shows minimum connections as:

Doesn't that mean a UA-NH international-to-international connection should be legal with 1h11m?

jsloan

No. That is applicable only to flight NH 6451 to NRT, which is presumably the NH code for the UA flight.

There are two applicable rules for your proposed flight:

The first is the rule that applies to the codeshare (UA 7937), and the second is the one that applies to the native flight number (NH 7), given that there are no other applicable exceptions. Both of them require 1:15, so 1:11 is too short of a connection.

The extra five minutes is presumably intended to give you enough time to get over to terminal D, which is where the NH gate would be.

wpcoe

Thanks, @jsloan.

I've taken the UA-NH connection MID-IAH-NRT in the past, but it must have had the required 1h15m. It's a ongoing sore subject to folks I know in Mérida that during most times of the year UA can't/won't operate the MID-IAH flight just a few minutes earlier to enable connections to Asia via IAH-NRT.